'wild urbanism' at zaryadye park

congrats to the all those at DS+R and their winning proposal for zaryadye park in Russia!

This super cool concept, of 'wild urbanism' plays well within the city.  Bringing various landscape typologies together and allowing users to wanders is quite perfectly positioned, especially within the urban city center - where our paths are quite often, dictated for us.

beautiful images (as always) and a clever film clip help sell the idea.  architecture holding hands with 'nature' - well played.

the deep

super amazing stop motion animation.  takes the metallic and brings 'em deep down below the horizon.

done by an american director PES.  these amazing stop motions take everyday tools and bits of metals pieces, recombines them into a creepy under water world.  it has the atmosphere of being on board steve zissou's yellow submarine looking through a port hole searching for the jaguar shark.  totally love it.  now you can see too!

"The murky underwater world of fish, seaweed and other aquatic lifeforms is created entirely from old hand tools, nut crackers, calipers, films lenses, faucet knobs, chains, and skeleton keys - that exact opposite of what you might expect to animate sea life with - demonstrating why PES is clearly a master of his craft."

minneapolis water works

This project has always tickled my interest.  I'm glad the my alma mater (Kate Orff of SCAPE with Rogers Marvel) will get to play a hand in the re-shaping, re-imagining, and re-definition of Minneapolis' historic, iconic waterway.

you can get the whole scoop via minneapolis parks foundation website.  great firms were chosen, super exciting!

existential sensitivity

so, wow, how time flies.

let me attempt to get back into the swing of things.  for your viewing pleasure...

thanks to the guys at spirit of space for helping steven holl revamp his 32BNY series.  what was once a small publication, now, morphs into video for today's audience.  listen to these guys (wow, kipnis) debating what has become of today's modern architecture.

let's explore a fuller range of possibilities. thanks for the reminder.

build wood skyscrappers

OMG.
this video is fantastic!  Micheal Green lays out very methodically, and in language easily understandable, why we should be building in wood.  he makes the claim that not only is it possible to build 20 story buildings (hopefully, higher) in wood, but necessary.  think about it, wood sequesters carbon (versus concrete and steel which contribute loads of carbon), large logs burn slowly (fire safety), we can grow them, we can engineer them, and with an increasing amount of people moving to the city, we'll need to house these new city dwellers.  wood feels better, looks better, and is better for the environment - when's the last time you hugged a steel column? or rubbed your hand over a steel panel? (i won't get into concrete, cuz that's a big weakness of mine).  but seriously, why the hell aren't we doing more with mother nature's super material?

PS. super clean graphics! very nice.

say it ain't so...

the world lost a great mind last night...


R.I.P. Mr. [Lebbeus] Woods

"we should all look forward to, even seek out or purposefully engineer, a new year filled with the kinds of challenges Lebbeus felt, rightly or not, that we deserved to face, fight, and, in all cases, overcome—the genuine and endless difficulty of pursuing our own ideas and commitments, absurd goals no one else might share or even be interested in." 

ethnobotanical architecture workshop!

next weekend i'll be heading down to the new school to participate in the futurefarmers workshop.
really excited to work with some of my friends at GSAPP.  hope to represent!

check it.
thanks amy franceschini and myriel!

the snow

soft sunlight pours in through the corner as a gentle breeze oscillates above a bed of feathers.  the 'snow' arcs in waves within a transparent boundary.

tokujin says, "the variety of the essence in the nature touches our emotions. i intend not to reproduce them, but to pick the element that inspires our heart and integrate it into the design."



a snowscape of feathers. beautiful.

watch this video now

michael pawlyn on biomimicry.
collaborate!

daeyang gallery|house_ SHA+spiritofspace

by god, those boys have done it again!

long time fans of fellows uwm alumns, spirit of space's team has grown since first starting out (which is fantastic!) and the recent run of videos is showing why.  their works are getting more polished, finer toothed, and did i mention drawing upon a much more renowned clientele?

their latest, documents the daeyang gallery and house outside of seoul south korea by a personal hero of mine, one mr. steven holl.

here is holl speaking a little more about the project:

i love this: "taking inspiration from an istvan anhalt musical composition, steven holl architects designed thishouse and gallery situated in the hills of the kangbuk section of seoul, korea. heel the serenity.  experience the passage of time.  listen to the trickling water.  see light dance on the walls and floor.  enter a state of quiet contemplation.  comprehend what it means for architecture to change."

spirit of space

this is a lovely little project/gallery.  evoking memories of a rustier bloch building in kansas city, and most certainly carries the same poetic command material treatment and incorporation of natural elements to enhance the architectural/living conditions.

my hats of to both steven holl architects and spirit of space.  i see good things in both of their futures!

zumthor v.3D

Documentary of Zumthor! (in 3D)


”Most architects build this stuff and they already have 3D representation. They can enter a building before they even build it. But I think especially with modern architecture, to make a film that really deals with the sense of place and how it changes the way people use buildings and are shaped by cities and buildings, that could not really have been done before,”

Wim Wenders

Many years to complete?  Following a project from start to finish? sounds good to me! And. In 3.D!?

End of the Spring quarter!

Sorry for the late update. UCLA and work has got me running nonstop until recently.

Anyway, we finished this year with a bang! RUMBLE! here are some pics of what I've been up to recently for that.
Special thanks to Haoyuan Ren for the photos!: here is his site: Haoyuan Ren




For the M.arch 1 program we were told to develop a wall section that talks about the enclosure system we're proposing. At the start of the quarter we were given an case study to develop and learn from. Mine being Lever house by SOM, we focused mostly on two things, one being the idea of pulling the spandrel into the space and two the research and development portion of an new solar shading device, which we actually got to work!(but only as a single prototype) the video and explanation of this device in a later post. [i still need to edit the vid...]







I have to say, this is the first time i've built something like this, it turned out to be a wild experience of alot of unknowns and faith. Lucky for me I had friends who believed in me, and i'm happy to say it turned out rather well! I hope you enjoy the images!

As for the solar shading device we decided to go with an bimetal project which expands and contracts depending on electrical current. Further development lead to the exploration of an expanding flower like object. Since we decided to go the fashionable route (literally) we decided to give it a flower look, giving the facade an overall blooming effect, the idea is that each flower is powered by a solar panel (which is possible) and it blooms depending on the amount of sunlight and so forth. since the flower needs to contract and expand frequently to keep it from overheating the entire facade in theory would be in continuous movement, giving it an shimmering effect or current like water so forth, i think you get the idea. :P





Here is a link to my site which will try to talk about it in better detail.
and if you have questions ask a way!

chaos in computerland

so... this is what i've been dealing with at work.

too many lines. i can't wait to turn them off.

FIGMENT

project

this weekend!

FY-Langes: the second showing

come one, come all down to Governor's Island this weekend!
FY-Langes, a digitally fabricated installation will be showing at FIGMENT .

"Constructed almost exclusively out packing foam, FY-Langes is a tactile, interactive, reconfigurable installation designed and built by students at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation."



a small blurb leaked on the CC:GSAPP website last night.  and more information can be found on the FY-Langes blog!

surface tension @eyebeam

super excited about this one:

"The future of water is the subject of tension. Water is both disposable and sacred, a muse for artists and a necessity for life – a source of healing and of conflict. The Earth has abundant water, but only a very small proportion is available for human use. How should this be managed and sustained, and what would a water-scarce future look like?"

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

Among the many water-themed exhibits, events, workshops, and interactive experience, exhibition highlights include:

• An open source prototype for a robotic swarming, sailing ship that could clean up oil spills in the future
• Umbilical filters, artificial insemination kits and precocious puberty dolls, all responding to rising levels of chemicals and hormones in our drinking water
• A water pump that requires the same amount of energy to fill a plastic bottle as would go into producing it—approximately 3 hours of pumping per liter; 1,000 times more energy than would be required for tap water
• Water themed films screening in the Eyebeam Project Space

see you WEDNESDAY!

a motto

“Whatever is iconic must be perfect, whatever is perfect must be lucid, whatever is lucid must be simple, and whatever is simple must be bold.”

Reiulf Ramstad Architects 

triple decker poster!

so. god. damn. epic.
this is such a great mix of old school and new school.
each poster keeps getting better and better.  whoa!

check out this process video!
damn mr. jack white!

into the underground

final images. more text soon.

mausolee

MIND. BLOWN.

The same Project

A great professor of mine once said, in response to a comment of mine that perhaps all my work looks the same: "You will find the longer you work, you will be doing the same project your whole life." I have only come to prove him right. And then some.

Cheers to the final push in studio. Photos to come soon.

bolton historical museum addition

so, two super talented graduates of GSAPP recently secured a commision (or at least presented their proposal to the community board) for an expansion to the bolton historical museum up north... 
check out the full article on the mirror: lake george magazine

"the story is ongoing"

rueben caldwell and leigh salem (two guys i really looked up to while they were here.) started tack design (out of brooklyn) and along with their one legged chair and have found some early successes.

the simple design is elegant and powerful.  full of architectural allusions.  fitting of its surrounding context while remaining proud in its own design language.

my favorite, "we use elements in such a way that people can look at the building from multiple reference points, including barns, ice houses and the commercial buildings of main street, as well as boat houses," said caldwell. "the building should communicate something meaningful to a broad range of backgrounds."

in the words of beck hansen, "hell yes!"

shit storm

can someone tell me what's going on here?

one man's trash...

in the beginning there was a pile of shit.

...

...


what happened?! i blacked out.
when i came to, i had this thing in front of me.

two overlapping paths wrap around a central theater space.
one public path, is rendered with solid floors and light walls, the other, below, is rendered in opposite materials.  reveals provide visual and auditory connectections between the paths and enhance the atmosphere of each through reverberation and echo.

orpheus. down down down. underground!

articulated cloud

by ned kahn
Pittsburgh Childrens Museum, Pittsburgh, PA. 2004

Composed of thousands of translucent, white plastic squares that move in the wind, the artwork is intended to suggest that the building has been enveloped by a digitized cloud.

...

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction."

 _albert einstein

"Imagination to more important than knowledge."

... i think this was my high school graduation quote. he also said that.

KICK START

For my final project as a first semester MArch I at the GSD, I hastily created this stop action in the wee hours of the morning and began my presentation showing this film.

Lock Project

The project program, while perhaps in a way arbitrary, is a series of theaters and tight gallery spaces. The spring board for the work for each of us was a simple mechanism; mine was the Oldham Coupling Unit. I concentrated on the subtle movement that creates big shifts when the pieces are allowed to slide past each other, requiring inscription. Each sequence in the story of the building creates a new arrangement of program, allowing and disallowing passage, opening and closing the theaters and expanding them. At one special moment, the very bottom gallery reveals a secret corridor, allowing a body to pass into the wet grotto below, and to step out into the inscribed and carved earth work.